On Imagination

In my spare time, I am currently reading Montessori's Spontaneous Activity in Education. What I think she was trying to convey on her chapter on Imagination today really struck me. Montessori stressed on how important it is to let the child's mind mature on the imagination platform instead of us encouraging the raw nature of imagination that is in the child for 'illusions' are the beginning of false reasoning, and the concomitants of delirium.

Simply speaking, if you want to teach a child what is a horse show her a horse in all its true form not a lego block of squares. Adults easily fall into the trap of encouraging the child, for the sake of making them imaginative, in flights of fancy. Just like how we make up fables with witches and warlocks and fairy godmothers who grant wishes when things get impossible , just to name a few.

However, Montessori argued that such a propagation does not breed imagination but is instead an act of arrest(ing) artificially a stage of development for our own amusement. Our role is not to let this transient stage become an artifice for the child needs to grow into an adult.

For all its worth, my sons love Lego and it is true how an unsatisfied need create an illusion. For not being able to play with toy guns, my second makes them out of anything. Children in fact, are very capable in that sense to come up with alternatives. However, Montessori warned against them being too deprived of what they desire for it would begin to create fantastical thoughts but he who possesses something attaches himself to that which he possesses to persevere and increase it reasonably.

Imagination can only have a sensory basis, not?

On Montessori

1. In what ways was Maria Montessori a pioneer for women's rights?

Maria Montessori was a pioneer for women's rights in her fight to pursue her beliefs despite the barriers facing women in Italy then. She was very much a pioneer through example, refusing to follow the normal path that women followed then by first wanting to be an engineer and studying in a technical school and then pursuing medicine when no woman has ever done that before in Italy.

When she met up with the head of the medical faculty to discuss the possibility that she could enter the faculty but was spurned, she left with the parting words of , “ I know I will be a doctor.” She continued this persistence by matriculating for the medical faculty and finally getting into it.

Her exemplary fight to pursue what she wants despite the place that women had in society then was portrayed in her struggles during her studies where she was treated coldly by her male compatriots. She not only persisted to excel but won over many of her critics. Dr. Maria also had to fight her personal inhibitions with the rigours of her medical studies as shown in the episode when she first had to work in the mortuary.

Montessori's fight for women's rights continued soon after her graduation when she became the Italian representative for a conference on women's rights in Germany. There she impressed much with her spontaneity and insight into the issues facing women in those days. Throughout her fight to do what she believed was right, Montessori did not see any reason to part from her feminine nature. stamping her own version of a liberated woman.

2. In what ways did she lead an important educational movement for reform?

Dr. Montessori's wave of reform started from her work with the disabled where she called for changes to how they are being taught. She believed that they become a liability to society only because the system they were put into did not teach them to be more than what they are because society has already perceived them as lesser beings.

Montessori stated in the Pedagogical Congress in Turin in 1898 that “the intellectual idiot and the moral imbecile are capable of being educated and have instincts that can be used to lead them to the good.”¹

She later translated her opinions in her work at the Orthophrenic School for two years which she called her first and indeed my true degree in pedagogy. She achieved a breakthrough when the children who were thought to be of no hope to learn anything were able to read and write, with some passing the national examination, then the average level of education of Italians, after being taught at the school.

Montessori brought scientific pedagogy to a new level. She not only furthered Itard's and Seguin's work, she also brought in her medical and anthropological background into education and began a pedagogical revolution where the child, not the teacher or anything else became the center of learning. “ The subject of our study is humanity; our purpose is to become teachers. Now, what really makes a teacher is love for the human child...” ²

• 3. In what ways to you feel she was "human"?

Despite her privileged upbringing, Montessori never saw herself as being above the less well-off. As a child, she befriended a hunchbacked child and went for walks with her. She was often a champion for the underdogs; women, the disabled and of course, children.

Montessori also continued to live in Spain and not return to Barcelona after her visit to the United States in 1915 so that her son will not be conscripted into military service which would have conflicted with her stand against war and militaristic nationalism.

In her speech on “ Education and Peace” , Montessori talked about how important it was that human instincts must keep up with the advancement of technology which in the wrong hands could have catastrophic consequences for “if the sidereal forces are used blindly by men who know nothing about them with the aim of destroying one another- the attempt will be speedily successful.”³

• 4. How did her humanity impact her role as a world leader both positively and negatively?

One of the strongest negative impact of her humanity on her role as a world leader was how she agreed to go along with Mussolini in his support for the Montessori movement which was in truth for his own fascist ambitions.

In her stand that she was apolitical and that the “cause of the child” superseded ephemeral distinctions of party and nation. She believed that despite the brutalities of the regime, it was far better that she is in the system taking charge of the education of the children and hence for the betterment of society in future.

Those unstable times however also brought opportunities for her work to be carried out among the victims of war. Out of her plea for the establishment of the White Cross to treat the children of war, Montessori classes were set up in almost thirty cities in France for children who had been the victims of war.

She also contributed to other war relief efforts such as the Haus der Kinder in Vienna, pumping in support from England towards the school that was built to serve the destitute children who were victims of war.

The world wars also made her an advocate for peace around the world and she was even nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize thrice. Her work brought her around the world for the most part of her life such that her country is a star which turns around the sun and is called the Earth.

5. What is the greatest contribution of her life to the world?

Dr. Montessori's gave to the world her philosophy and method of education where the child can discover for himself and is able to apply what he learns to new situations in a school. Through this she has freed the child from the slavery imposed in schools where the child is confined to the chair and table and made to repeat lessons.

6. What would you like to add about the story of her life?

More than half a century after Dr. Montessori's death, her work has continued to enjoy a continued renaissance and has spread throughout the world.

My hope is that this love for the child is brought into public education so that a majority, if not all the children will be able to discover their true self and their role in this life. There is lack of spirituality in the education of the masses which at times has been made into a factory for the economic growth of the future.

An education should not only be about being number one, but to love knowledge and to live by a code of conduct that would bring good to society at large because if education is always to be conceived along the same antiquated lines of a mere transmission of knowledge, there is little to be hoped from it in the bettering of man's future.”

1Kramer, R. (1988). Maria Montessori A Biography, p.75

2 Ibid, p.98

3Ibid, p. 302

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What I have learned from My Montessori Foundations Course

When I first came into contact with Montessori's methods 5 years ago, it was like an encounter with a totally alien concept. How can learning be carried out when children are left to walk around choosing their 'lesson' for the day without the adult guiding them step by step?

From then it has been a journey of discovery. I even took up a distance course locally which I though was already such an interesting journey. However, when I took up the course with Montessorilive, I realised how narrow my earlier course was and how academic centred it was, not much unlike our local school system where children are pressured to do their best to bring up their school ranking in the country and how we are always competing to be the best in the world testing and examinations standards.

I know see the bigger picture for If education is always to be conceived along the same antiquated lines of a mere transmission of knowledge, there is little to be hoped from it in the bettering of man's future. The children are not factors in production lines to be assigned their different lines based on the paper tests that we give them much like how the industrial revolution in Germany played a role in how schools are organised today.

Instead, I shall now try to humble myself, like the secret hinge on a door as we teachers can only help the work going on, as servants wait upon a master. This will be a great struggle, for we adults, especially as I am not only their educator but also first and foremost their mother, always see ourselves in a position of authority.

Preparation of the Educator

6. What is the essential “hidden hinge” within the educational process of the human child?

The hinge is an almost insignificant part of the door that one tend to forget its role completely when in actual fact without the hinge, the act of opening of closing the door would be a more complex concern. Hence, such should be the position of the educator in the Montessori environment; he should humble himself to such an insignificant position as the hinge.

Only by allowing the child to take centrestage, will he be able to reveal his inner being to the educator who can then tailor to the needs of the child and ease the process of him opening the door to knowledge that exist beyond.

9. Define the horticultural terms “thriving”, “wilting”, and “stunted” as they apply to the learner.

When a child is thriving, the learning environment is helping him to go to the next stage of his development as is ordained by his inner being. He not only performs at the level that he is supposed to be at but is capable of working towards what is beyond his current level of skills and knowledge.

A student who is stunted is not as easily detected for they might seem to be thriving when in fact they are not moving any further than where they are at already. This can be seen when the child is able to do her work with much ease and can easily lead to boredom and detachment from the learning process.

A wilting learner, is digressing away from what he is actually capable of and this might be the result of either putting him at a level way beyond his reach or a deficient environment. Hence, when a student is wilting or stunting there has been a mistake in how we are responding to what he actually needs and is capable of doing. There must have been something slacking in how the child has been observed and analysed or there might have been a mismatch in approach.

7. Why did Dr. Montessori say that she had to become a “nobody” when she was there with children?

There was a need to be a 'nobody' for only then will the natural phenomenon of the child reveal itself to the educator. In standard schools, it is the teacher that becomes the centre of attention that all the students need to observe but in a Montessori school, the reverse is true.

To study the phenomena of the child, the educator must be 'invisible' so that the child can carry out his work out of his own inner will and decision. Every child has different needs in him that makes him see the same thing in a different way and this will be reflected in how he responds to the environment around him and how he is called out to the materials.

Being the centre of a class would interfere in the natural learning process that the child is going through for the teacher would then be the 'command centre' where all instructions come from. However, in such an environment, how are we to know that what the child is doing is reflective of his psychic being. It would almost be like a bias in an experiment.

By observing what for example calls out to the child and how he works with it, the educator can decide where the child is in his stage of development and what his natural inclinations may be. He can then find areas to widen the scope of work that the child is working on or decide on the next work that the child is ready to do.

11. What did the children learn about writing after they had their first “exploded into language”?

When the children first 'exploded into language' they were fervently writing and deciphering whatever words were around then. Dr. Montessori however showed them that there was an even more meaningful part to language and that was 'communication'. She wrote on the board ' if you can read this, hug me' and when the children who were able to read saw that they came to her and embraced her.

From there they realised that language was a powerful tool that they could use to express their thoughts to one another and gain a response from. They soon started writing to each other and were truly enjoying language as a human experience.

17. Why must a Montessori educator become a storyteller or actor?

A Montessori educator needs to capture the spark in the child when he presents the material to him. This is done through the carefully sequenced acts and expressions which is almost dramatic. When this is translated in other areas of educating the child that does not use that much physical or didactic material, the words become the material and there is an even greater need to express oneself very well as the concept becomes more abstract.

Hence, the educator needs to be a great storyteller or actor for his stories or scenes are what that must capture the child's interest and imagination. The experience will not only be easier to remember but it will leave a deeper impression in the child and hopefully spurs him to further discover what has been introduced to him.